Today's Wiki-est, Amazonian GoogliesAcross1. One may follow a long drive : CHIP
A chip might follow a long drive on a golf course.

5. CNBC topic : STOCK
CNBC is a business news channel owned by NBC. Launched in 1989, up until 1991 CNBC was known as the Consumer News and Business Channel.

14. Subject of the 1994 best seller "The Late Shift" : LENO
"The Late Shift" is a 1994 book by Bill Carter that tells the story of the power struggle between Jay Leno and David Letterman to take control of “The Tonight Show” after Johnny Carson retired. “The Late Shift” was adapted into a 1996 TV movie produced by HBO.

17. Big mailer to the over-50 crowd : AARP
AARP is now the official name for the interest group that used to be called the American Association of Retired Persons. The name change reflects the current focus of the group on all Americans aged 50 or over, as opposed to just people who have retired.

22. The Golf Channel co-founder, to fans : ARNIE
Arnold Palmer is one of the greats of the world of golf. Palmer is very popular with many fans of the game, and his followers are usually referred to as “Arnie’s Army”.

“Golf Channel” (formerly “The Golf Channel”) was launched in 1995 with golfer Arnold Palmer securing the $80 million necessary to get programming on air.

24. Math subgroup : COSET
I am sure I learned about cosets in math class 40-50 years ago, but I’ve long forgotten …

26. George Washington, for one : CARVER
The scientist and inventor George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Missouri in about 1864. George was freed along with his brother when slavery was abolished and his former “owners”, Moses and Susan Carver, raised the children as their own. Susan Carver gave the boys their initial education, and George defied racial barriers to continue his studies through college. George Washington Carver was destined to become world famous through his research and the promotion of crop rotation and planting of alternative crops to cotton.

34. First-aid kit staple : GAUZE
The surgical dressing called “gauze” is named for the thin fabric with a loose weave that is also called gauze. The fabric’s name might possibly be derived from the Palestinian city of Gaza that has a history of gauze production.

35. Article in Vogue Paris : UNE
“Vogue” magazine has been published an awfully long time, with the first issue appearing in 1892. Over the decades the magazine has picked up a lot of criticism as well as its many fans. Famously, an assistant to the editor wrote a novel based on her experiences working with the magazine’s editor, and called it “The Devil Wears Prada”.

37. First name of a former president ... or, read another way, what each of the shaded lines is : WOODROW
President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. He was so honored in recognition of his efforts to promote peace around the world, and in particular for the leading role he played in setting up the League of Nations after WWI (despite his failure to gain support for the organization from the US Congress).

42. ___ die : SINE
“Sine die” is the Latin for “without day”. The term is used as part of the term “adjournment sine die” that means “without assigning a day for a further meeting or hearing”. So, an assembly that adjourns sine die is one that adjourns without appointing a specific day to meet again.

45. Patrol boat : CUTTER
The original vessels called cutters were sailboats. In modern usage, cutters are medium-sized vessels that have official functions such as transporting harbor pilots or patrolling with the US Coast Guard.

49. Gossipy Barrett : RONA
Rona Barrett is a gossip columnist originally from New York City but who plies her trade in Southern California. Barrett started out as with a gossip column that was syndicated in newspapers but then made a successful transition to television. She made regular appearances in news broadcasts and on her entertainment shows in the sixties and seventies.

57. Kind of place : ONES
I think the reference is to the “places” in numbers: ones, tens, hundreds etc.

60. "The Grapes of Wrath" figure : OKIE
John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is set during the Great Depression. The novel tells the story of the Joad family from Oklahoma, farmers who had to leave their home and head for California due to economic hardship.

61. Wyoming's ___ Range : TETON
Grand Teton National Park is located just south of Yellowstone NP, and a must see if you are visiting the latter. The park is named after the tallest peak in the magnificent Teton Range known as Grand Teton. The origins of the name "Teton" is not very clear, although my favorite story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word "tetons" in French means "breasts"!

62. Nude alternative : ECRU
The shade called ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word "ecru" comes from French and means "raw, unbleached". "Ecru" has the same roots as our word "crude".

64. Origami, e.g. : CRAFT
Origami is the traditional Japanese art form of paper folding. The word “origami” is derived from “ori“ (folding) and “kami” (paper).

Down2. When repeated, "Amen!" : HEAR
Hear, hear!

3. Latin phrase on a memo : IN RE
The term "in re" is Latin, derived from "in" (in) and "res" (thing, matter). "In re" literally means "in the matter", and is used to mean "in regard to", or "in the matter of".

4. Pink, e.g. : POP DIVA
"Diva" comes to us from Latin via Italian. "Diva" is the feminine form of "divus" meaning "divine one". The word is used in Italy to mean "goddess" or "fine lady", and especially is applied to the prima donna in an opera. We often use the term to describe a singer with a big ego.

Pink is the stage name of American singer Alecia Beth Moore. That’s all I know ...

6. Island roots : TAROS
The corm of some taro plants is used to make poi, the traditional Hawaiian dish (that I think tastes horrible). When a taro plant is grown as an ornamental, it is often called Elephant Ears due to the shape of its large leaves.

8. French Open feature : CLAY COURT
There are four different surfaces used for playing tennis competitively:

- Clay courts (used for the French Open)
- Hard courts (used for the US Open and the Australian Open)
- Grass courts (used for Wimbledon)
- Carpet courts

9. Flooey lead-in : KER-
“Kerflooey” is a word that we’ve been using since the early 1900s to mean “awry, kaput”.

12. Petty of "A League of Their Own" : LORI
Lori Petty is the actress who played the character Kit Keller in the fabulous movie "A League of Their Own". Petty also played the title role in a 1995 science fiction film called “Tank Girl”.

“A League of Their Own” is a comedy drama film released in 1992 that tells a tale about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League active during WWII. The lead actors were Tom Hanks and Geena Davis. The film spawned one of the most famous quotes in movie history: “There’s no crying in baseball!”

13. Salinger girl : ESME
J. D. Salinger wrote a short story called "For Esme - with Love and Squalor", originally published in "The New Yorker" in 1950. It is a story about a young English girl called Esme and an American soldier, and is set in WWII.

25. Ricelike pasta : ORZO
Orzo is pasta that has been formed into granular shapes, much like barley. And indeed, "orzo" is the Italian word for "barley".

26. Ricochet : CAROM
A carom is a ricochet, the bouncing of some projectile off a surface. Carom has come to mean the banking of a billiard ball, the bouncing of the ball off the side of the table.

27. Old shopping locale : AGORA
In early Greece the "agora" was a place of assembly. Often the assemblies held there were quite formal, perhaps for the reading of a proclamation. Later in Greek history, things became less formal as the agora evolved into a market place. Our contemporary word "agoraphobia" comes from these agorae, in the sense that an agoraphobe has a fear of open spaces, a fear of "public meeting places".

28. Polish-born musician who was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom : RUBINSTEIN
The great Arthur (sometimes “Artur”) Rubinstein was a classical pianist from Poland who became a naturalized American citizen in 1946. Rubenstein was particularly respected as a performer of Chopin’s repertoire.

38. God with two ravens on his shoulders : ODIN
According to Norse mythology, the god Odin had a pair of ravens that flew all over the world each day to get him information. The ravens were named Huginn and Muninn.

45. Convincing, as an argument : COGENT
Something cogent makes sense, it is convincing and reasonable.

48. Zapped, in a way : LASED
The term “laser” comes from an acronym, “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” (LASER). It has been pointed out that a more precise name for laser technology is “Light Oscillation by Stimulated Emission of Radiation”, but the resulting acronym isn't quite so appealing, namely LOSER …

51. Paul in the Songwriters Hall of Fame : ANKA
Canadian-born Paul Anka's big hit was in 1957, the song entitled "Diana". Anka was the subject of a much-lauded documentary film in 1962 called "Lonely Boy".

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About This Blog

This is the simplest of blogs.

I do the New York Times puzzle online every evening, the night before it is published in the paper. Then, I "Google & Wiki" the references that puzzle me, or that I find of interest. I post my findings, along with the solution, as soon as I am done, usually well before the newsprint version becomes available.

About Me

The name's William Ernest Butler, but please call me Bill. I grew up in Ireland, but now live out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am retired, from technology businesses that took our family all over the world.

Crosswords and My Dad

I worked on my first crossword puzzle when I was about 6-years-old, sitting on my Dad's knee. He let me "help" him with his puzzle almost every day as I was growing up. Over the years, Dad passed on to me his addiction to crosswords. Now in my early 50s, I work on my Irish Times and New York Times puzzles every day. I'm no longer sitting on my Dad's knee, but I feel that he is there with me, looking over my shoulder.

This blog is dedicated to my Dad, who passed away at the beginning of this month.